His choice to occasionally reveal what will happen in the future, and when He does, like trumpeters on the castle wall, as someone chosen by God as a watchman, I must proclaim the full counsel of God, which includes both sovereign wrath and supreme love. So for those of you wondering why I’m always talking about repentance and destruction, I cannot pick and choose what it is that I must speak about. As a watchman, addressing the wrath of God is never optional —it is a divine mandate. God demands it! Why? Because an essential part of God’s moral perfection is His hatred of sin. Like I said before, always to me first and then to whomever may receive it.
Listen, we are not living in ordinary times. We are nearing the end of an age. A world-shaking crisis is inexorably building and will, in the near future, explode the appearance of normalcy that still pervades. The progression of disturbing news stories that you may read about or hear about in the News, is not random and inconsequential. In fact, they foreshadow remarkable key trends and specific events that will change everything we are familiar with very soon! Open your eyes to understand the significance of today’s news and where it is all leading. For as the Apostle Peter wrote about Bible’s prophecies: “So we have seen and proved that what the prophets said came true. We will do well to pay close attention to everything they have written, for, like lights shining into dark corners, their words help us to understand many things that otherwise would be dark and difficult.… For no prophecy recorded in Scripture was ever thought up by the prophet himself. It was the Holy Spirit within these godly men who gave them true messages from God” [2 Peter 1:19–21]. I speak not on my own accord, but the Holy Spirit. That time will be the worst time of trouble this earth will ever experience [Matthew 24:21; Jeremiah 30:7; Mark 13 Luke 21; Ezekiel 36, and Daniel 12, and elsewhere.
Therefore, Jesus commands us to watch and to be ready. “Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man” [Luke 21:36]. Our entire life is about to change. Soon, mankind will suffer through the most devastating, bloody war in human history—called, in biblical terminology, the “Great Tribulation.”[Matthew 24:21-22]. We are now approaching that time, and these things are now being revealed. [Daniel 12:10,].
If you consider yourself a follower of Jesus, then you should pay close attention to His instruction to you: “Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.” [Luke 21:36].
Here is what the prophet Jeremiah said about this same time: “Now these are the words that the Lord spoke concerning Israel [whose modern descendants include the United States, Great Britain and other nations of northwestern Europe] and Judah.… For thus saith the Lord: We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. Ask now, and see, whether a man is ever in labor with child? So why do I see every man with his hands on his loins like a woman in labor, and all faces turned pale? Alas! For that day is great so that none is like it…” (Jeremiah 30:4–7).
“Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” [Matthew 24:30].
“For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” [Revelation 6:17]
.
He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming quickly.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. [Revelation 22:20].
Nationally syndicated talk show host and author Wilmer Leon believes despite what most political polls are saying and making history at their convention, Democrats still face an uphill battle to defeat President Donald J. Trump in November’s election.
The host of Sirius/XM’s “Inside The Issues” says there are flaws in Democrats’ political strategy and the prospects for voter suppression are real.
He also believes many of the policies are already in place that are designed to deny and discourage minorities the chance to vote or not to have their votes counted.
As the author of “Politics: Another Perspective,” the political scientist and former Howard University professor gives the Republicans credit for their ability to “stay on message” and their marketing strategy gives them an edge in the race.
He joins Mark Gray in this edition of “The Gray Area” podcast to discuss how the last two months of the 2020 campaign will affect the future of the nation.
The U.S., which has both the largest number of infections and deaths from COVID-19, is lagging far behind other countries which have far fewer resources, concluded three eminent physicians and global health experts speaking at news briefing for the nation’s ethnic press.
Speakers at the briefing, organized by Ethnic Media Services, included Dr. Ashish Jha, Director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, Dr. Tung Nguyen, professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and Dr. Nirav Shah, senior scholar at Stanford University’s Clinical Excellence Research Center.
The U.S. leads the world in both COVID infections and mortality rates. 5.3 million U.S. residents have been infected, while more than 167,000 have died. Nguyen said the number of new infections had jumped by a staggering 66 percent over the past five weeks.
“America may have the worst response of any country in the world to this pandemic,” said Jha, noting that there is an incredible amount of misinformation spread through social media and a lack of leadership.
“We’ve had leadership both at the federal level and at many state levels that have largely adhered to that misinformation and promoted that misinformation. They have failed to take science as the primary guiding principle,” he stated.
“This is almost all about biology and math and if you decide you’re going to ignore both the biology and the math of this virus, it is unlikely that you’ll end up doing very well and that’s what we have seen pretty consistently,” said Jha.
He dismissed notions that authoritarian countries do better, citing Russia and Brazil, which are pandemic hot-spots.
Jha discussed why some East Asian countries have been effective in controlling the spread. Vietnam, which has had just a handful of deaths, took on the virus early, banning travel to and from China, and instituting a very aggressive contact tracing regime. South Korea has relied heavily on testing, while New Zealand has been aggressive with lock-downs. Japan has not done a lot of testing, but has had universal masking.
Jha castigated the U.S.’s “half-hearted” approach to the pandemic, stating one approach must be deployed effectively. “You don’t have to be a wealthy country to do well,” he said. “Take the virus seriously and let biology and math drive the decision making.”
Shah, who also serves on the Health and Human Services Secretary’s Advisory Committee on National Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives for 2030, said the U.S. is making a false choice between lives and livelihoods. “You can have both,” he said.
Shah discussed early warning systems — smart thermometers that allowed for home testing with results immediately delivered to a database via the Internet to determine COVID hot-spots. He advocated for broad and efficient testing, noting that, currently, U.S. residents must wait for at least five days for COVID test results to come back, at which point they are inefficient. Low-cost rapid antigen tests could deliver results in about 15 minutes, he said.
The U.S. must also become more effective in quarantine, said Shah, noting that some countries remove infected people from their families and put them up in hotel rooms to control spread in tightly-packed families.
Data reporting must become more effective, said Shah, noting the U.S. is doing a “horrible” job of daily reporting infection and mortality rates. In late July, hospitals were told to use a new platform for reporting data, administered by HHS. The old platform was administered by the Centers for Disease Control.
The new system has been plagued with inaccuracies. “We really need to start to think about a fundamentally different approach to this that protects privacy and still allows for public health to do its work,” said Shah.
About 169 treatments and 39 vaccines are currently in the pipeline, but neither therapies nor a vaccine will be available on the marketplace until at least the summer of 2021, said Shah.
“I’m not going to be getting on a flight to Russia and rolling up my sleeve for their vaccine,” said Shah. Russia announced Aug. 11 that it had developed the world’s first COVID vaccine at the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology in Moscow. Critics of the vaccine noted it has only been tested on 76 people.
A number of studies are looking at the re-purposing of the BCG vaccine, which is widely used in India and other Asian countries as a prevention against tuberculosis.
Shah suggested that vaccines need to be tested on at least 30,000 people before determining efficacy.
Nguyen, the founder of the Asian American Research Center on Health, discussed the findings of a new study released by the CDC Aug. 14: “Mental Health, Substance Use, and Suicidal Ideation During the COVID-19 Pandemic.” The study found that 40 percent of the 5,000 people surveyed said they had experienced mental health issues during the pandemic. Almost 11 percent had considered suicide.
Young people between the ages of 18 to 24 reported alarming rates of mental health issues and self harm. 75 percent of young people surveyed reported experiencing some form of mental health disorder during the pandemic. An alarming 25 percent had thought of suicide.
22 percent of essential workers and 30 percent of unpaid caregivers had considered suicide, according to the report.
Nguyen said that the mental health epidemic will worsen in the coming months. “I’m now viewing the covid-19 pandemic as being more than about a single disease caused by a single virus.”
“We are witnessing the beginning of associate epidemics, such as mental illness, bad outcomes in many other diseases, and a terrible change in the social determinants of health such as income, employment, and housing,” he said.
The shouting is over. The 2020 Democratic National Convention was well crafted, programed and designed. The Democrats told the stories of the candidates.
President Bill Clinton reminded us of another time when he was President. Hillary Clinton reminded us that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris could win by 3 million votes and still lose. Trust me she knows what she’s talking about.
President Barack Obama gave us a strong and forceful lesson on constitutional law. He powerfully presented in unprecedented terms how Trump as President, just didn’t have it. He pulled no punches. He stated, “I never expected Trump to embrace my vision or continue my policies, I did hope (for the sake of our country) that Donald Trump might show some interest in taking the job seriously.” “Trump has shown no interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get more attention he craves.” He said that Joe and Kamala will rescue the economy and deeply cared about Americans, together they would get the pandemic under control.
Michelle Obama gave it to us middle of the road, southside girl style, stating the facts of the case and telling it like older generations use to say “T-I-S!” Wearing a “Vote” necklace, Michelle called Trump by his name and said “Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country.” We watched a moving documentary on democracy.
Vice President Hopeful Kamala Harris
The highlight of the convention was the introduction of Kamala Harris. We heard of her background being raised as a Black woman born of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father. Her mother, a biologist and cancer researcher, raised her and her sister as a single parent, and her father left the family when she was 5 years old. Her mother is deceased. Her dad is an economics scholar and was the first Black male to gain tenure at Stanford University.
Kamala Parents: Shyamala Gopalan and Donald Harris
As we listened and watched Kamala accept the Democratic nomination for vice president, we wondered if we were watching a future president. She could make astounding history as the first woman and the second Black in the Oval Office. Wow. This could really happen in our lifetime. A lady from Howard University could possibly lead the White House. Hello to all of the AKA’s.
Harris meets ambivalence with some Black men as they question her deeds as a prosecuting attorney in California. She locked many of them up. She will be questioned, yet she was only doing her job. But, would you rather have Trump? That’s the legitimate question.
Dr. Jill Biden will make her very own history as First Lady, community college professor and super mom if Joe’s elected president. She promised that she wouldn’t leave her students, not even for the job at the White House. She will be the first First Lady with outside employment. Let’s see how that works and who enrolls next semester.
Finally candidate, former vice president Joe Biden. Joe presented himself in a strong speech, perhaps the best in his 47 years of public service. It wasn’t a convention speech but felt like a fireside chat. He was compassionate, elegant, dignified and real. He told his story about his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania where he knew real life causalities, from his Dad’s loss of job, to the accidental tragic death of his first wife and daughter.
His political journey has been from being the youngest Senator to being possibly the eldest President. When he lost his first wife and daughter in a tragic car accident in 1972, he commuted to work every day via Amtrak to and from Washington, DC every day (the trip’s about 90 minutes) and tucked his kids in bed nightly, as they got through the pain. He did this for 36 years. He lost his son, Bo, to brain cancer. You could hear Biden’s pride of his son the solider, as he went into public office, yet the agony lingers as he tell us, you never get over it. If you don’t identify with that, you are heartless.
During his speech, Biden pulled at your heartstrings as he spoke about his personal stuttering. He introduced to a young boy he met on the campaign trail, with the same problem. Biden told the 13-year-old boy how to conquer his speaking issue. “Kids like me are counting on you to elect someone we can all look up to” he said.
The convention was staged beautifully. It was different. It’s messages deliberate. Zoom was used at its best especially during the home spun roll calls. No fanfare, no balloons or confetti, no applause, no tears, and no cheers. Taped speeches were controlled and purposeful as they were delivered with everyone talking straight to the American public, from their living rooms to ours. It was cozy, casual and comfortable.
As perfect as the Democratic National Convention was, its speakers missed a few things. They missed telling us their plans on what they will do with program and policy for the future of America. Many of them ran against Trump, but did they run for a Democratic platform? We assume it will be better with Biden’s seniority and his lovely family but what should we expect? In the days to come we need to hear the Biden-Harris platform and not just see pretty faces and storytelling.
What about the eradication of racism in this era of Black Lives Matter? What about the economy, as we face a changing face of culture with the pandemic? What about police reform? What about education? Kids have missed a full year of school. We need to hear policy positions.
I like the idea very much that the future Vice President is in place. Kamala will represent a new generation. She will be groomed to assume office if need be. I like that Biden knows his way around the White House from his vice presidency days. I like the fact that he knows the Senate and can cross the aisle to get things done. I like his seniority very much. He can hit the ground running with vigor and energy as an expert surgeon. Experience matters. Biden’s experience matters.
Enters Trump…
And now comes the movement of Trump. He plans on appearing all four days of the Republican National Convention. His talks will be bold, pompous, filled with greatness and illusions of grandeur. His will be a scene from a patriot play that speaks in code to the ways of yesteryear, filled with America great slogans.
The rose garden has a new look for the television screen. Trump will tell us with boundless optimism how great he is, as he plays the political hand that has destroyed the Republican Party. He takes us backwards to a place we won’t go, as he disrupts even the post office. He challenges the system in a bold crazy way with his lovely fashionable family at his side as main speakers of the Trump parade.
His presidency is a virtual reality show. The last three years of his presidency has been flawed and Trump will tell us of the many hoaxes during his last three years.
Trump is not to be discounted, ignored or dismissed. He is ruthless and enjoys the attention of being president. He’s nothing but outrageous – from challenging birthing and calling people out of name. It’s nothing but a good hand of playing “signifying monkey.” His tactics work for him, because they are so daring. He’s like the drunk in the bar that everybody laughs and listens to, but nobody puts him out. They do nothing but give him another drink so that he can be more outrageously offensive.
Trump is not to be under estimated. He is a master of the media. He is bold. He’s an escaped convict running desperate. He’s a pied piper. All of his men have been jailed for their wrongdoing. Trump will pardon them as he can. Trump is telling us loud and clear if he loses it will be because the Democrats cheated. Perhaps the U.S. marshall will be called to remove him from the White House.
Trump with his many conspiracy theories, tells us that the post office will fail us, especially with mail-in votes. So what does he do? He removes the mailboxes off the streets and destroys the sorting machines. He has no fear. He tells us that even if he looses, he will not leave the White House. We look in disbelief and wonder, what on earth will he do next as he mounts his campaign for a second term. How much more offensive can he be? What other lunatic tactics and alien-like methodology will he use in a second term? Mrs. Obama has warned that it could get worse. This will only add to more fodder for books written about his ill and zany ways.
These are amazing times that we live in. As society changes daily, we watch old ways become new. We watch with fright and astonishment as we cope with a world pandemic, that the leader of the free world cannot embrace. He tells us it will be all right eventually, rather than pay attention to the science of the matter. Yet Trump will try and take credit for everything once a cure is found for COVID-19.
As we pray, we better damn sure get out to vote, at all cost. The vote is the only thing we can do to save America. Vote Trump out. Vote for Joe Biden. We HAVE to save our democracy. America’s at stake, please STAY woke. The best thing that can happen to American democracy is to tell Trump “You’re FIRED!”
Los Angeles County Chief Executive Officer Sachi A. Hamai, who agreed to temporarily postpone her retirement to help lead the County through the initial phase of the COVID-19 emergency, announced that she will retire at the end of August 2020.
“This has been a challenging and tumultuous period for our County and its residents, and it has been an honor to help lead our workforce in its unprecedented response to COVID-19. While we still have a long way to travel on our road to recovery, our budgetary and public health situation is beginning to stabilize and I believe the time is right for me to continue with the retirement plans I first announced last October,” Hamai said. “I am confident that our Board of Supervisors, along with our department heads and exceptional workforce, will successfully lead Los Angeles County through recovery and into a healthier, more equitable future.
“This week marks my 32nd year of County service. Although the challenges of the current moment are immense, I also reflect proudly on accomplishments during my tenure that have positioned us to meet today’s challenges from a position of fiscal strength—including our strongest-ever credit ratings and substantial investments in our rainy day funds.
“I am so grateful for the opportunity to have served. I will never forget the incredible fellow employees who have partnered with me every step of the way.”
Members of the Board of Supervisors thanked Hamai for her public service—including her decision to postpone her retirement in order to help the County navigate one of the most difficult periods in its recent history.
“I want to thank our CEO Sachi Hamai for her unwavering commitment and dedication to Los Angeles County, most recently evidenced by her willingness to postpone her retirement to help us navigate the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Board of Supervisors Chair Kathryn Barger. “The Board of Supervisors is fortunate to have had Ms. Hamai at the helm of our CEO operations for the last several years. Her leadership and keen fiscal sense, coupled with her collaborative spirit, have greatly benefited Los Angeles County as a whole, and all of our residents and businesses throughout the region.”
“Sachi Hamai has demonstrated steady leadership during this unprecedented moment in the County’s history,” said Board Chair Pro Tem Hilda L. Solis. “She has managed the day-to-day operations of this country’s largest municipal government with singular focus. I thank Sachi for her years of service to our County residents, and in particular, for her dedication these past few months in responding to this public health crisis.”
“CEO Sachi Hamai has been an exceptional leader in moving Los Angeles County forward,” Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas said. “Her budgetary acumen, coupled with her commitment to serving the underserved, has enabled us to invest deeply in some of the most important priorities of our time, including justice reform and the fight to end homelessness, while maintaining the fiscal prudence that has earned the County its highest-ever credit ratings. She has been a mentor and role model to a generation of County leaders, including women and people of color, and her legacy as a collaborative, results-oriented CEO will continue to shape the workings of Los Angeles County government well into the future.”
“Every County CEO needs to be a political wizard, a genius with money, and a long-distance runner,” Supervisor Sheila Kuehl said. “Sachi gets an A+ in all three, plus being a mentor and a champion for women and people of color in government leadership. I am so grateful for her more than three decades of service, and can’t imagine the County without her.”
“We owe Sachi Hamai a great debt of gratitude,” said Supervisor Janice Hahn. “Not only did she postpone her hard-earned retirement to guide the County through this unprecedented crisis, her careful stewardship of taxpayer dollars throughout her tenure kept our budget sound and balanced so that the Board’s priorities were always doable. She has been an incredibly effective leader and has accomplished so much for the County’s ten million residents over her 32 years of service.”
The Board has appointed Chief Operating Officer Fesia Davenport to serve as Acting Chief Executive Officer.
Eric Garner’s mother Gwendolyn Carr says, for Black Men, selling a single cigarette, known as “loosey,” can lead to an arrest, a prison sentence or even death.
Six years ago, a police officer put her son in a chokehold and strangled him to death for allegedly selling illegal cigarettes on Staten Island, a borough of New York City.
Now, Carr is speaking out in a new video against California Senate Bill (SB) 793, which she says will create the same circumstances – the illegal sale and use of menthol cigarettes and aggressive, racially-biased law enforcement — that led to her son’s death. If the Senate passes the bill and Gov. Newsom signs it into law, it would ban the sale of menthol tobacco and other flavored cigarette products.
“A new law would criminalize menthol cigarettes, which Black people smoke almost exclusively, giving police officers another excuse to harm and arrest any Black man, woman or child they choose,” Carr says in the video opposing SB 793. “A bad law has consequences for mothers like me.”
Carr is not alone in her opinion of the bill. Across California, there is opposition to SB 793, which, if passed, would become the country’s strongest restriction on flavored tobacco products, including Newport, Kool and Salem cigarettes — three brands Blacks disproportionately smoke.
Old and young, faith leaders, retired law enforcement officers, and civil rights activists came together to protest SB 793. At protests in Los Angeles and Sacramento on Aug. 20, they called out the inherent discrimination coded into the language and spirit of SB 793, which California Sen. Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo) authored.
“The goal of this protest is to ensure we are heard,” said Rev. K.W. Tulloss, President of Baptist Ministers Conference Los Angeles and co-founder of Neighborhood FORWARD, a community-based social action organization. “SB 793 is a bad bill that’s not good for California. The unintended consequences of this legislation are real. Bills like this take us backward.”
But on the same day of the protests, the Assembly Appropriations Committee passed the bill, sending the bill to the full Assembly for consideration.
The rallies were two in a series of three held against SB793. The first one was held in front of the home of California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood).
Like Carr, people and organizations that oppose SB 793 say it is discriminatory because some adult tobacco products — those preferred by Whites – are exempted from the ban.
Meanwhile, the tobacco products preferred by African American adult smokers, menthol cigarettes, are included in the ban. Exemptions in SB 793 include shisha tobacco, which is used in hookah water pipes, premium tobacco, and loose-leaf tobacco.
The retail sale of flavored handmade premium cigars with a minimum price of $12 are also not prohibited under this bill.
Some California residents say that the exemptions for certain kinds of tobacco nearly mirror laws that unequally penalized people for selling or possessing the same amounts of crack cocaine and powdered cocaine.
In 1986, the federal government passed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, which mandated stiffer punishments for people who sold crack cocaine, the rock form of the drug, which more Blacks used. Penalties for possessing or distributing cocaine powder, preferred by Whites, were much lighter. Distributing just five grams of crack triggered a federal mandatory minimum prison sentence of 5 years. But it required 500 grams of cocaine for a distributor to receive a federal prison sentence of the same length of time – a 100:1 disparity.
Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP) and the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement (NOBLE) agree that the bill has a racist element to it. They say the bill demonstrates clear discrimination and preferential treatment between two tobacco products preferred by two different cultural groups.
“We will not and cannot stand for more policies that resemble another Black tax yet find a way to make concessions and amendments for certain groups,” Rev. Tulloss said. “Hookah is exempted, yet menthol cigarettes are not. The Speaker can make this bill fair and that’s all we’re asking.”
Existing law prohibits a person from selling or otherwise furnishing tobacco products to a person under 21 years of age. It also prohibits the use of tobacco products in county offices of education, on charter school or school district property, or near a playground or youth sports event.
If SB 793 passes, each violation of the law would be punishable by a fine of $250.
“Using candy, fruit, and other alluring flavors, the tobacco industry weaponized its tactics to beguile a new generation into nicotine addiction while keeping longtime users hooked. SB 793 breaks Big Tobacco’s death grip,” said Hill said after the Senate voted 33-4 to advance the bill to the Assembly last month.
An estimated seven out of 10 African American youth ages 12 to 17 years smoke menthol cigarettes, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In addition, African American adults make up the largest percentage of menthol cigarette users compared to other racial and ethnic groups, the CDC says.
The coalition of SB 793 supporters include the Office of Lieutenant Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, the Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association, and the Common Sense Kids, who are all bill sponsors.
“SB 793 coauthors, cosponsors, African American thought leaders in government, health, the faith community, science, the arts and among our youth, as well as other supporters, have provided strong counterpoints to the obfuscation,” Hill stated. “We are confident that together we can ensure the strongest tobacco control restrictions in the country become California law.”
On July 25, the federal government’s Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program ended for most states, leaving millions of Californians without the extra cash many of them had been relying on for months to make ends meet.
The $600 extra in federal stimulus pay was added cushion to the amount states already provide for their residents in unemployment insurance payments. Created for Americans who lost their jobs due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the program was authorized by the Cornonavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) act, which was signed into federal law in March.
Then, last week, the California Employment Development Department (EDD) announced that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) approved California’s application to participate in the federal Lost Wages Assistance (LWA) program — funding that President Donald Trump authorized by memorandum Aug. 8. The LWA program provides $4.5 billion to California from which $300 extra in unemployment insurance benefits will be paid to individuals for three weeks.
“Since the beginning of this pandemic, we have sought to maximize federally funded unemployment benefits to Californians. These benefits are critical for the basic security of families and communities and for our economy, which have been so devastated by the virus and its financial impacts,” said California Labor Secretary Julie A. Su after the EDD’s announcement.
To qualify, unemployed Californians would have to already be eligible to receive at least $100 each week in unemployment benefits and they would have to provide proof that their job loss resulted from the coronavirus crisis.
Although the U.S. House of Representatives has approved a fifth stimulus bill, the $3-trillion-dollar ‘‘Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act, the Senate has not brought it up for debate or vote. That bill includes an extension of the $600 federal supplement through Jan. 31, 2021.
Senate Republicans have countered the $600-a-week proposal in the HEROES act with a $400 weekly payment in UI benefits. Democrats turned down that offer in negotiations.
Some Republican Senators opposed to the $600 payment approved in the last stimulus package argued that it does not provide an incentive for workers who were laid off to look for work.
“We cannot encourage people to make more money in unemployment than they do in employment,” Sen. Tim Scott (D-SC) pointed out.
While the U.S. Congress decides what should be included in the next stimulus package, for now unemployed Californians can apply to get $300 a week extra in unemployment benefits
dating back to Aug. 1.
“As we modernize and strengthen the state’s unemployment insurance delivery system, we will continue to leverage any additional resources the federal government makes available,” Su said.
Jonathan Burgess co-owns Burgess Brothers with his twin brother Matthew. It is a popular American bistro-slash-barbecue restaurant and food supply company based in Sacramento. Locals treasure them for their delicious waffles; handcrafted gourmet barbecue sauce; sweet and spicy smoked sausages; among other specialties.
The African American entrepreneur says small family-owned businesses like his are tempted by what digital food delivery services might offer them: A broader customer base and online advertising on highly trafficked apps.
But that exposure comes with a crippling cost.
“There’s only like a very thin 5% profit margin for most small restaurants. It’s simple math. If you give Uber, Doordash or one of the others a nice chunk of that, it just doesn’t work out for you.”
Burgess says food delivery services should offer special rates for mom and pop shops that are lower than what they charge chain restaurants. Those corporation-owned eateries typically buy their ingredients wholesale at much lower costs and they can make up for losses on delivery fees by what they make in volume.
Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego) has written a bill to address the challenges food delivery apps have posed for small restaurants like Burgess’s across California. When the chair of the Assembly Appropriations Committee and Latino Caucus introduced Assembly Bill 2149, the Fair Food Delivery Act in February, she did not know the COVID-19 pandemic would shutter restaurants across California, and around the world, about a month later.
Now, more than five months since the World Health Organization declared the international health crisis a global pandemic, more Americans than ever, faced with limited dining-out options, are relying on food delivery apps to purchase meals from restaurants. Grubhub, one app-based food delivery service, reports that it has more than 27 million active users and its orders have increased by over 32% over the last year.
But Gonzales says those large tech companies like Grubhub and its competitors Uber Eats, DoorDash, Postmates and others — all of them earn billions of dollars each year — take advantage of small struggling restaurants when they deliver those eateries’ food without their consent or an agreement.
“When food delivery companies take advantage of small mom and pop restaurants by delivering their food without permission, it can damage the customer’s experience and the restaurant’s reputation,” Gonzalez said, adding that food delivery companies have created “significant disruption” in the food service business.
If passed, AB 2149 would require all food delivery companies in California to get the “express written consent of a food facility before delivering the business’ food,” according to a statement Gonzalez’s office released.
“This bill will put the power back in the hands of small restaurant owners by ensuring they have agreed to the delivery arrangement beforehand,” Gonzalez continued.
She says food delivery services sometimes post outdated menus and provide poor service. Both things can harm a restaurants reputation, she argues. She also points out that the app-based companies may out-compete restaurants that have their own delivery service. In California, there are an estimated 76,201 food and drinking establishments, according to the California Restaurant Association (CRA). The CRA supports AB 2149. Hundreds of those California restaurants are Black-owned. In the Los Angeles area alone, for instance, there are nearly 200 African American-owned restaurants, according to Infatuation, an L.A-based website.
But Courtney Jensen, who serves as the California executive director of? TechNet, a trade group that represents a number of leading tech companies says there are several problems with Gonzalez’s bill. Among them are the potential “flagrant” violation of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the possibility that putting restrictions on delivery services could reduce the revenue of the same restaurants that the legislation intends to help. Under AB 2149, food delivery services would have to turn over lists of the restaurants’ customers to them.
“Some restaurants or other food facilities that may not be required to comply with CCPA would be provided consumer’s personal information,” Jensen told LA Magazine.
“By providing personal information to these food facilities, which are not required to comply with CCPA, the privacy rights of California consumers are undercut, as they would have no rights to access, delete, or opt out of sales of their personal information from these restaurants that either are not required or lack the resources to extend CCPA rights to consumers.”
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco based non-profit that defends civil liberties in the digital space, also opposes the bill. That organization argues that the right of food delivery service companies to operate without formal agreements with restaurants is protected by the Copyright Act, a federal law passed in 1976.
“AB 2149 is a poorly conceived attempt to hamstring food delivery platforms,” Jensen says. But Burgess maintains that promoting a third-party restaurant online without that business’s permission or buy-in is wrong.
“It’s an intrusion. For the sake of decency and full transparency, these companies should get authorization before they advertise someone’s business,” he said. “This is not in the best interest of the restaurant.”
Today, Sunday, August 23rd, marks what would have been the 42nd birthday of NBA legend, humanitarian and father Kobe Bryant, and now there’s a new song ascending into the heavens above Hollywood’s horizon, crowning the many touching tributes paid to late and legendary basketball superstar, who sadly, and tragically transitioned this life on January 26th, along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, and seven other souls.
The new musical track, titled “Mamba, We Love You,” co-composed by Annalea Diamond and Tony “Raheem” Thomas, both of Los Angeles, has been released for airing to radio and digital media nationwide. The song is beautifully crafted, artfully composed and lovingly performed, and everyone involved in bringing it to life view it as more than just their talents on display, but more so a divinely received gift.
Boasting masterful writing and performance touches by the acclaimed Thomas, whose body of work in the industry includes performing alongside such luminaries as Patrice Rushen, Donald Byrd & The Blackbyrds, Bobby Hutcherson and others, the track is beyond well-done and a fitting tribute to Bryant’s longstanding legacy of proud, unapologetic manhood. It also lifts up and celebrates his spirited example of sportsmanship, excellence and fatherhood on and off the court. So well done is it, in fact—and such a lush, beautiful track—that it just simply must be heard to be appreciated.
“Thinking ’bout Kobe Bryant, strong like a mighty lion…
Mamba, we love you. Oh Mamba, we love you.
More than a basketball star, he was a family man.
You’ll always be near in our hearts, always and forever.
We celebrate you, miss you, and we’ll never forget you…”
“It came to me like rain,” says Ms. Diamond, recalling what inspired her to sit down and put pen to paper. “That’s the best way I could describe it. We (she and Thomas) actually put it to bed within a couple of days. When the song first came to me, I had to stop and pray because the whole situation with the accident was just so traumatic. I basically had to stop and have a conversation with God in prayer, and that’s when the words really started to culminate.”
Continues Ms. Diamond: “He (Kobe Bryant) has just been a part of us Californians for many years. They call the Staples Center ‘The House that Kobe Built.’ Also, being a parent myself…or anyone who’s a parent and has something so tragic like this happen to you—this just needed to be said. I’m thankful that the song came to, and through me. There are so many people hurting right now because of what happened.”
For his part as not just co-writer, but also arranger and keyboardist, Thomas drew upon a similar, higher source for his inspiration. “The way ‘Mamba, We Love You’ was formulated, I really just believed that it was a divine intervention,” he states. “When she brought to me what she had written, I didn’t have a bridge, and I didn’t know where she was going with it, but everything just started to present itself right before my eyes on the keyboard. To my surprise, the lyrics just matched everything that I put down.”
Ms. Diamond sang all lead vocals, while vocalist Leslie Cole, best-known for her work with the legendary Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting and production team of Motown Records fame, performed background. The track was recorded and produced by James Shifflett. Shifflett has recorded such artists as Barbara Streisand, Lou Rawls and The Brothers Johnson, contributing to each of their chart-topping success.
Kobe B. Bryant was an American professional basketball player, who played his entire 20-season career with the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers. Bryant nicknamed himself “Black Mamba” in the mid-2000s, and the epithet became widely adopted by Lakers fans, sports writers and enthusiasts and the general public.
About Annalea Diamond Annalea Diamond is an emerging new singer-songwriter/artist based in Los Angeles.
About Tony Thomas
Tony Thomas (a.k.a. ‘Raheem’) composed the song, “Baby, You Got It,” which was included on the soundtrack of the 2004 Paramount Pictures film, Against the Ropes starring Omar Epps and Meg Ryan. He has also recorded with The Waters Family and The Dramatics among numerous others, and has performed on-stage with such highly respected artists as Patrice Rushen, Donald Byrd and The Blackbyrds, Bobby Hutcherson and many more.
Governor Newsom signed AB 1460 into law on Monday, August 17.
The new state law requires California State University (CSU), the nation’s largest four-year public university system, to provide courses in Ethnic studies at each of its 23 campuses beginning with the 2021–22 academic year and requires CSU students to take a 3-credit course in Ethnic studies in order to graduate beginning in the 2024-2025 academic year.
The bill was introduced last year by Assemblymember Shirley Weber (D-San Diego), professor emeritus of?Africana studies at San Diego State, on behalf of the California Faculty Association (CFA) and with support from the legislative ethnic caucuses (Black, Latino, and Asian Pacific Islander). It passed on Aug. 3 after legislators engaged in personal and passionate debates during committee hearings and on the floor of the Assembly and Senate as each expressed their perspectives on the pressing need for our society to deal with its history of racial inequities.?
Ethnic studies is an interdisciplinary study of race and ethnicity that gained acceptance nationally in universities following the 1960’s Black student uprisings. Research shows that students of color and white students benefit academically and socially from taking Ethnic studies courses. These courses can play an important role in building an inclusive multicultural democracy.
According to Charles Toombs, CFA president and a professor of Africana Studies at San Diego State, Ethnic studies differs from other disciplines. It is crucial in its own right.
Because of that, AB1460 specifies that CSU students take a course in one of the
four historically defined racialized core groups: African American studies, Latino studies, Native American studies or Asian American studies.
The bill states, “It is the intent of the Legislature that students of the California State University acquire the knowledge and skills that will help them comprehend the diversity and social justice history of the United States and of the society in which they live to enable them to contribute to that society as responsible and constructive citizens.”
AB1460 passed despite opposition from CSU Chancellor Timothy White, the Academic Senate of the California State University, and the leadership at all 23 CSU campuses.
Chancellor White asked the Executive Senate Committee at each CSU campus to write a letter of opposition when the bill was introduced. Allison Wren from CSU Academic Affairs Division presented CSU’s three main objections to AB 1460 at an Assembly Higher Education Committee Hearing.
“First, we believe the legislature should not impose curriculum,” Wren said. “A legislative mandate, such as this will set the dangerous precedent of allowing the government to determine curriculum. And this does in fact threaten the academic freedom of our campuses.”
“Second, the proposed bill is not necessary,” she continued. “We already have cultural diversity requirements on all 23 campuses. Many of these requirements are met by existing courses in Ethnic studies or courses and other departments such as anthropology, history, gender Women’s Studies, among many others.”
“Finally, such a requirement could adversely impact our associate degrees for transfers programs. The bill could potentially also adversely impact CSU graduation.”
Weeks before AB 1460 passed, CSU trustees approved an “Ethnic studies and Social Justice” studies graduation requirement as an amendment to the school’s general education curriculum. Its critics say the approval was timed to present Newsom with an alternative to AB 1460.
The 13-5 vote of CSU trustees marks the first significant change to the university’s general education requirements in 40 years. The approved courses include the four core Ethnic studies disciplines AB 1460 requires and adds courses on the history and culture of other oppressed groups, such as Muslims, Jews or LGBTQ people. The requirement goes into effect in the 2023-24 school year.
The board members acknowledged the need for more Ethnic studies, citing that the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police and the national protests over police violence and systemic racism resonated in their thoughts as they voted.
However, in a letter to Chancellor White before the trustee vote, legislators, led by Assemblymember Weber, pointed out that the policy, “does not respond to the challenges we currently face, has been rejected by the faculty, and is not supported by students.”
“The changes proposed by the Chancellor’s office will significantly water down the intent of AB 1460 and will result in something akin to a “diversity” requirement, which was not developed in collaboration with the CSU Council on Ethnic Studies,” she added.
CFA said, “How the board can look at anyone with a straight face and say that an Ethnic studies requirement can be fulfilled without ever having to take a course in Ethnic studies is beyond believable.”
Weber followed that up by commenting that though it’s written as an Ethnic studies requirement, the policy approved by the CSU board permits students to meet it without actually taking an Ethnic studies course. By signing AB 1460, Newsom sided with Weber and her legislative colleagues in deciding that a strict definition of Ethnic studies was needed to supersede the policy that CSU trustees approved.
AB 1460 is the first time the Legislature dictated a CSU graduation requirement. The Legislature fully debated this departure from precedent and concluded that the CSU system on its own lacked the will to adequately tackle society’s reckoning around race and inclusion.
Weber in explaining why it was necessary for the legislature to act said, “I know the Ivory Tower seldom opens its door unless the door’s kicked down. And that’s the reality of the Ivory Tower.” AB 1460 is inspired by the legacy of Ethnic studies that arose out of the protests and activism of CSU students demanding course offerings that covered the experiences of oppressed racial American communities.
Newsom by acknowledging that legacy is advancing the proposition that radical change on race in our public higher education system has to be fostered and is directing that policy be instituted that assures CSU students are introduced to perspectives critically needed to solve society’s most pressing problems as a requirement for graduation.
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